FOUR MINUTE MILE
This is not a show about athletes or exceptionalism. This collection is about the emotional experience of vulnerability that comes as part of believing in something deemed impossible. The drama of sport is exploited to describe with visual gravitas, the dilemma of risk, blind faith and exposure, as one pursues something they are brave enough to sacrifice for. It is dedicated to everyone who took a chance today despite the odds - who won, lost or suffered because you dared to not sit safely on the sidelines, but to live in color, with your heart beating on the outside of your chest.
Having struggled recently with grief and identity-crushing loss (within the realm of my lifelong commitment to martial arts, and also in my life outside of the dojang), I found a need to establish strict and narrow artistic boundaries to work within. I paired down my materials to paper and matte medium. My process reduced to the acts of cutting and gluing. I tried to locate how far I could simplify an image before its meaning was lost, and I experimented with how to amp up the emotional impact of a work of art, through the very stripping away of detail. Ultimately, I hope for these pieces to have an every-person universality, slightly ambiguous but whole heartedly personal and relatable, with tribute paid to joy of shape, color and composition.